Title: Towards sustainable development: a complex process

Authors: Dorien DeTombe

Addresses: International Society on Methodology Societal Complexity, P.O. Box 3286, Amsterdam 1001 AB, The Netherlands

Abstract: Sustainable development is a complex societal problem belonging to the field of societal complexity and must be handled according to the scientific ideas of this field. Sustainability includes agricultural and industrial production as well as production ways. Capitalism tolerates differences in power, wealth and work. To reach a more sustainable society, capitalism should be socially based and democratically controlled by international organisations. Whether it is possible to develop a sustainable world should be carefully explored in multidisciplinary workshops using the concept of quality of life operationalised by cultural, social and economic capital. The complex process of organising societies towards a sustainable world can be guided by using the Compram methodology. The Compram methodology is developed to analyse, define, guide and evaluate complex societal problems. By using the guidelines of this methodology, one can find the causes of complex problems and suggests directions for change.

Keywords: complexity; sustainable society; capitalism; sustainable development; Compram methodology; gross national product; GNP; national quality of life; NQL; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2008.017896

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2008 Vol.7 No.1, pp.49 - 62

Published online: 21 Apr 2008 *

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